Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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EVENTS

Soros, Communists and the Robin Hood Tax

Aaron Klein, one of the truly unhinged voices that the Worldnetdaily is constantly promoting, has a hysterically overblown article about the Robin Hood Tax. Of course, it’s all about George Soros and COMMUNISTS! The commies are coming, the commies are coming! This is not a repeat from 1981. Or 1951.

George Soros-funded economist Jeffrey Sachs this week briefed members of Congress on the so-called Robin Hood tax, which calls for a small fee on Wall Street trades.

The Robin Hood tax was proposed by U.S. politicians closely tied to the country’s largest socialist organization, WND has learned…

Sachs’ address to Congress on Wednesday came the same day 200 advocates of the Robin Hood tax marched up Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C., reported the Communist Party USA’s online newspaper.

Sachs has been a long-time proponent of the Robin Hood tax. He is a Columbia University economist who crafted a controversial economic “shock therapy.” Sachs is a key member of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, or INET.

Soros is INET’s founding sponsor, with the billionaire having provided a reported $25 million over five years to support INET activities.

And it goes on like this, interminably. Commies, commies, commies. Virtually no discussion on whether it’s actually a good idea or not. They do claim that it will “destroy the economy.” Seriously? It’s a tax of less than 1/2 of 1% on every Wall Street security transaction. It would generate an estimated $350 billion a year in new revenues. Do they seriously think anyone who isn’t delusional to believe that this would destroy the economy and lead to communism?

Actually, it was the #1 reason for it. And as far as destroying the economy, let the record show that it’s been in place in other countries for quite a while. The main thing that we have that those countries don’t is … high-frequency automatic trading.

Putting a stop to high-frequency trading is the main point. This trading serves as a tax levied by the major Wall Street firms onto other firms and retail investors. It serves no social purpose other than to take our money and give it to them. And it leads to further shenanigans.

bumperpuff“Every other monetary transaction is taxed why shouldn’t the sale of stocks?”
Because that’s taxing the Job Creators. Do you have any idea how many jobs buying a hundred thousand shares of stock in a company then selling it again a half second later, or buying on one market then selling on another, taking advantage of them being fractionally different for the half second the two markets takes to sync make? Well, I can’t tell for certain, but it’s got an awful lot of zeroes in it. It’s all zeroes, actually.

@7 Here is a list of countries that have, or have had a tax on financial transactions. I don’t know about the correlation with high frequency automatic trading but I’d be very surprised if this did not exist in Singapore or the city of London.